Calendar

The Acorn to Oak Test: Soil or Fridge?

Outside the house where I live in Maine is a big, tall red oak tree that has been producing acorns in such great number that as squirrels run about the branches they come down like rain — or hail, perhaps. The last person to live in this house seemed to think it important to maintain a lawn with green grass, but I like trees. I like big trees, and so I’ve decided to grow some more oaks.

I’ve already transplanted a year-old oak sapling from a dark wooded corner to an untreed location, but transplanting oaks isn’t well-advised because the roots of oaks go very far down very quickly, and the little trees suffer from transplant shock. We’ll see how my transplant effort went. In the meantime, I’ve decided to plant oaks directly from abundant acorns.

I’ve read advice on growing oaks from acorns, and some advice is consistent. Go for the green acorns, not the wholly brown ones, and if you can, take them from the tree or when they’ve fallen a bit later in the season. Put the acorns in water and use only the ones that don’t float, since floating acorns are less viable.

Suggestions for what to do next differ. Most sources I’ve read suggest putting acorns in a refrigerator with moist paper towels or sawdust until they begin to sprout, then planting them. I’ve also read that it’s fine to put them directly in the soil, or temporarily into a pot until they’re planted in their final destination, preferably before they turn a year old.

Because I’ve got so many acorns to work with, even after the squirrels have scampered away with their share, I’ve decided to try out both, testing the direct planting method against the fridge-then-soil method. I’ve put about thirty acorns in the fridge and whipped up four pots of good soil with two acorns planted in each one. If I only get one or two oak saplings out of the venture, then hey, I’ve got one or two oak trees to grow. If I get “too many,” then I suppose I’ll have to give some baby oaks away for others to plant. Unless no oaks grow at all, this will be a happy experiment. I’ll let you know what happens.

Share this:

About the authorJim Cook

I haven't been everywhere, but I've lived lots of places in the USA: the North, the South, the East, the West, and places in between. Every place I've been, I've seen acts large and small of kindness, callousness and disregard. Here we are. What will we do?

3 thoughts on“The Acorn to Oak Test: Soil or Fridge?”

An update, one year later. The acorns I put in the fridge were overrun by a fungus. The acorns I planted in soil sprouted, but the little sprouts were bent and broken by excited young humans. That year-old sapling I transplanted, on the other hand, is doing just fine. And as I sit by my window, squirrels are running through the mature oaks, gathering some acorns for winter and knocking others to the ground in the process. Nature’s cycle takes another turn.

Without the little human hands do you think you would have had any luck with the soil planted acorns? I’ve planted 6 green acorns with their hats on in gardening planters. What is a good internet site to use? Sick of bogus searches and all the contradiction. From west NE. Thank you!

It is a time of fear in the face of freedom, a time of an emptying country and swelling cities, a time for the widening of previous roads and the opening of new paths, yet a time when these paths are mined by knowing algorithms of the all-seeing eye. It is the time of the warrior's peace and the miser's charity, when the planting of a seed is an act of conscientious objection. These are the times when maps fade, old landmarks crumble and direction is lost. Forwards is backwards now, so we glance sideways at the strange lands through which we are all passing, knowing for certain only that our destination has disappeared. We are unready to meet these times, but we proceed nonetheless, adapting as we wander, reshaping the Earth with every tread. Behind us we have left the old times, the standard times, the high times. Welcome to the irregular times.